[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

 
Yes, the chorus sounds harsh relative to the rest of the song, which is likely due to the producer (or recording engineer) having overdriven the recording amplifiers to give the recording a more edgy sound - a common practice in pop music.
A couple of general comments: First, I wouldn't use Youtube videos to judge your equipment by. Instead, use a CD, LP, lossless WAV, AAC or (verified) 320kHz .mp3.
Second, again, heavy metal tends to be recorded to....well, let's just say less than audiophile standards. Sadly, there's little you can do about that other than to just enjoy the music the way it is.
Third, there're basically two fields of thought in audio: 1) the so-called straight-wire-with-gain approach, which, in absolute terms, means that your audio equipment neither adds nor detracts from the sound the producer/artist heard in the recording studio when they made the recording. In this case, the goal is to hear what's in the recording, warts and all; or 2) the tailor-the-sound-to-your-liking approach that says you have to find equipment that, together, produces a sound that, while perhaps not 100% accurate, allows you to modify (the adherents of the first approach would say distort) the original sound to tailor it to your liking. This latter approach is the reason why most audio systems have frequency response and other controls that allow you to modify the sound.
 
The bottom line is that unless you want to broaden your musical tastes, I would just enjoy the music and stop worrying about the warts it contains.
 

ok thanks that means it was not my headphones.
 
 

 

[dynhm6]

Yup. Well, at least the harsh chorus sound in that Youtube video isn't harsh because of 'em.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

Yup. Well, at least the harsh chorus sound in that Youtube video isn't harsh because of 'em.

nah most of the harshness is caused by songs similar to that. i think it is my genre of music and i will never change my genre cause my gear doesn't like it.  regardless i am still getting a fiio e7.

 

[dynhm6]

That's the spirit!!

 

[SolidVictory]

So many problems arise just from the genres of music that people listen to, that it is difficult to understand things like attack, transparency, timbre, etc because these genres are so prone to bad recording, and even worse mastering (read about the Loudness War), making these recordings permanently handicapped by the time they reach any audio gear.
 
For example, as dynhm6 pointed out, heavy metal music is so often compressed and made loud that there is virtually no dynamic range. A lot of information is lost during recording and mastering, and thus some very expensive headphones sound just as good (or worse) as cheaper headphones on genres where the recording is compressed and played around with (like heavy metal, mainstream pop, etc.).
 
I think for someone who listens to mostly mainstream music, be it heavy metal or mainstream pop, spending over $150 on headphones is not going to return much of a benefit to that person. These recordings simply cannot take advantage of the technical capabilities of higher-end headphones. Play a lossless, well-recorded philharmonic orchestra or any well-recorded music (for Jazz, Brian Culbertson's "Live From The Inside" is a great example of a well-mastered album) and you can notice the headphone's richness and technical abilities immediately over cheaper models.
 
Though the law of diminishing returns is very evident and true, I still am very satisfied with my journey here at head-fi. However, it's just terribly difficult to sort through why some headphones don't sound "as good" as they should. I realized that the recording/mastering of the music is the most important thing, followed by the bitrate of the file, then the source, and finally the headphone (amps, dac's, and other gear ignored).
 
All this being said, I still think if you really want your music to sound good, head-fi can make it happen. Although a lot of what is spoken about on this forum is snake oil-ish, there is quite a lot of valuable information here. The hard part is sifting through the information to read the valuable content.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

So many problems arise just from the genres of music that people listen to, that it is difficult to understand things like attack, transparency, timbre, etc because these genres are so prone to bad recording, and even worse mastering (read about the Loudness War), making these recordings permanently handicapped by the time they reach any audio gear.
 
For example, as dynhm6 pointed out, heavy metal music is so often compressed and made loud that there is virtually no dynamic range. A lot of information is lost during recording and mastering, and thus some very expensive headphones sound just as good (or worse) as cheaper headphones on genres where the recording is compressed and played around with (like heavy metal, mainstream pop, etc.).
 
I think for someone who listens to mostly mainstream music, be it heavy metal or mainstream pop, spending over $150 on headphones is not going to return much of a benefit to that person. These recordings simply cannot take advantage of the technical capabilities of higher-end headphones. Play a lossless, well-recorded philharmonic orchestra or any well-recorded music (for Jazz, Brian Culbertson's "Live From The Inside" is a great example of a well-mastered album) and you can notice the headphone's richness and technical abilities immediately over cheaper models.
 
Though the law of diminishing returns is very evident and true, I still am very satisfied with my journey here at head-fi. However, it's just terribly difficult to sort through why some headphones don't sound "as good" as they should. I realized that the recording/mastering of the music is the most important thing, followed by the bitrate of the file, then the source, and finally the headphone (amps, dac's, and other gear ignored).
 
All this being said, I still think if you really want your music to sound good, head-fi can make it happen. Although a lot of what is spoken about on this forum is snake oil-ish, there is quite a lot of valuable information here. The hard part is sifting through the information to read the valuable content.

heavy metal is far from mainstream.
 

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

heavy metal is far from mainstream.

Also, don't let the classical snobs tell you that only their rarefied genre is suitable for high end transducers.  It just ain't true.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

Also, don't let the classical snobs tell you that only their rarefied genre is suitable for high end transducers.  It just ain't true.

indeed. i like classical but it fits into the 10% other category in my music preferences which overall 90% is metal/rock.
 
of that 10% other 50% is electronic based music. 40% is classical, 10% is old school country/hip hop etc.
 

 

[knubbe]

 
Quote:

Also, don't let the classical snobs tell you that only their rarefied genre is suitable for high end transducers.  It just ain't true.

Of course. There's also jazz
 

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

indeed. i like classical but it fits into the 10% other category in my music preferences which overall 90% is metal/rock.
 
of that 10% other 50% is electronic based music. 40% is classical, 10% is old school country/hip hop etc.
 

Me too, mostly.  Even the classical I like isn't good enough for most of them.  Beethoven's 5th?  Wagner?  Bah, peasant!  Don't you know that X's violin concertos and Y's piano sonatas are the epitome of real classical music.

 

[homeros8000]

This is low quality recording from beginning to end.

 

[deadlylover]

I truly believe you are doing it wrong if you have to cherry pick different material to make your high end headphones sound acceptable.
 
Kanye West on Youtube sounds absolutely brilliant on my $2500 Stax, but what do I know, I'm apparently dumb for wasting my headphones 'potential' with modern day poorly recorded crap.

 

[homeros8000]

Quote:

you tell me.
 does this sound harsh to you (disregard youtube quality)?
 

 
the chorus sounds harsh to me while the rest of the song seems to flow better. so is it my gear or the song?
 

Actually you're right. This is really harsh I agree that the rest is a bit better, but not very clear.
 

 

[homeros8000]

Quote:

I truly believe you are doing it wrong if you have to cherry pick different material to make your high end headphones sound acceptable.
 
Kanye West on Youtube sounds absolutely brilliant on my $2500 Stax, but what do I know, I'm apparently dumb for wasting my headphones 'potential' with modern day poorly recorded crap.

I agree! But I believe that classical music (and Jazz) is more complex because of the instruments used. It's very hard to reproduce the timbre and vibrations of strings and piano accurately on audio equipment. I didn't mean that non classical music is not enjoyable on high end audio. But you can enjoy rock and metal on low end audio as well, but it's almost impossible to enjoy classical properly on low end equipment. May I'm wrong, but this is my very subjective experience.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

Actually you're right. This is really harsh I agree that the rest is a bit better, but not very clear.
 

ya i love the song but i can't listen to it because the harshness drives me nuts. it just plain hurts.